The Actor Segawa Kikunojo II in an Unidentified Role

Held in the Art Institute of Chicago, this [hosoban](/glossary/hosoban) actor print by Ippitsusai Buncho presents the celebrated Edo kabuki onnagata Segawa Kikunojo II in a role that has not been securely identified. Segawa Kikunojo II was widely regarded as the foremost specialist in female roles on the Edo stage during the late 1760s and early 1770s, and a substantial number of Buncho's surviving prints feature him. In this image, Buncho centers the figure within the tall, narrow hosoban format, allowing the patterned kimono, sash, and hair ornaments to register clearly while the carefully drawn face conveys the actor's individual features rather than a generic type. Buncho's career, brief but unusually productive, spanned roughly 1765 to 1772, during which he established himself alongside Katsukawa Shunsho as a leading designer of [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e), kabuki actor prints made for Edo's commercial print market. The lack of precise role identification on this sheet does not diminish its value as an Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) portrait of one of the period's defining onnagata; rather, it places the print within a category of works whose theatrical context has been lost or never fully recorded. The Art Institute of Chicago's impression preserves Buncho's design and the printed inscriptions for ongoing scholarly study of the visual culture surrounding Edo kabuki.